When should I start writing?

8.2 Writing and structuring reports 191 not present any new details of the approach or results etc., which have not been explained in previous chapters.’ They also identify a number of other issues that the concluding chapter should address: n What can the results be used for? In other words, how can the reader benefit from knowing what they have learnt from the report? To what can they apply your results? n Can related research areas benefit from the results? Is what you have discovered or de- veloped applicable to other research areas? What are the limitations of the approach and of the results? n Are the results theoretical or do they have a real-world application? n How do the results compare with related research? n Has the work identified new questions that need to be answered? Has the work identified new areas of research? The structure presented by Berndtsson et al. ibid. is much the same as that sug- gested by Chinneck 1999 for graduate courses i.e., research degrees. Chinneck suggests the following chapter breakdown: n Chapter 1 – Introduction n Chapter 2 – Background n Chapter 3 – Review of the state-of-the-art n Chapter 4 – Research question or problem statement n Chapter 5 – How the problem was solved n Chapter 6 – Conclusions In this case, Chapters 1 and 2 cover the introductory and background material as before and Chapter 3 is equivalent to the literature review. Chapter 4 is equivalent to Berndtsson et al.’s 2008 Chapters 3 and 4 Problem description and problem statement and Theory and Chapter 5 encompasses Berndtsson et al.’s Chapters 5 and 6 Methods and Results. As this is a research-based report, there is more emphasis in Chapter 6 Conclusions on contributions and future work. In a similar vein, Bell 2005: 234–238 proposes the following structure for the main body of a report for research projects: n Chapter 1 – Aims and purpose n Chapter 2 – Literature review n Chapter 3 – Methods of data collection n Chapter 4 – Statement of results n Chapter 5 – Analysis and discussion n Chapter 6 – Summary and conclusions This structure is similar to that of Berndtsson et al. 2008 in which, once the background and literature review are completed, the report presents the methods of collecting data before presenting the results. In this case, the presentation of results is split across two chapters – Chapter 4 presenting a description of the data that were 192 Chapter 8 n Presenting your project in written form collected including appropriate figures and tables to summarise results with Chapter 5 analysing and discussing these results. Chapter 4 presents the factual results of the study, whereas chapter 5 presents the interpretation of these results. In conclusion, there is no right or wrong way to structure a report into a series of chapters – you should do what is appropriate for your own project. You might want to adopt one of the structures presented here or some combination of these suggestions. It is advisable to consult similar past student projects to your own to get an idea of the structure used. Your supervisor should certainly advise you on an appropriate structure for your report.

8.2.6 Style

The style of writing that you adopt to present your report can be discussed from three points of view. First is the actual presentation style of your report – for example, its layout, font size and so on. This kind of style was discussed earlier. Second is the style of grammar that you use within your report. Quite often good reports can be ruined by poor grammar. The author’s meaning is unclear as ideas and results are hidden within long complex sentences that include excessive words and jargon. The third point of view is overall content structure and this will be discussed further later. A good writing style comes with practice – the more you write the easier it becomes. Reading also helps to improve your own writing skills as you learn elements of good practice and identify interesting ways of discussing and presenting arguments. Having said this, there are some simple rules that anyone can follow to improve their writing style for professional reports. Try to write in the third person – in other words, try to avoid using personal pronouns such as: I, you, we, my and so on – but make sure that you don’t end up producing elaborate, complex sentences just to avoid this. For exam- ple, take the following sentence from a student report: I interviewed seven people to see what they thought of the system. This could easily be reworded to a less ‘chatty’ style and without the ‘I’ to: Seven people were interviewed to determine their thoughts on the system. Your supervisor should be able to advise you on this point and it may be that the nature of your project requires you to use a more personal approach. Keep sentences short and to the point. Avoid making several points within the same sentence. Avoid abbreviations, jargon and slang. Use simple, rather than complex words; the latter is often irritating for the reader, it clouds the meaning of your sentences and is often used to hide your own lack of understanding about the subject which the educated reader will spot. Try to keep your report gender-free – for example, use ‘she’ or ‘they’ rather than ‘he’. It is common practice to present your report in the past tense as the report repre- sents the results of the project which you have completed. Having said this, Day 2006 suggests that the present tense should be used when referring to the work of others just like this sentence does. Referencing material will be discussed in detail later but bear this point in mind.